Williams' tough road makes him respectful

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ANAHEIM Angels pitcher Jerome Williams put on his No. 57 jersey, sweatpants and sneakers, brought out his custom pink Zett glove and returned to Angel Stadium this past Saturday morning to play a little right field.

The Rancho Santa Margarita Angels/Padres welcomed him to their outfield with high-fives, happy to have a ringer for their yearly Orange County Little League Challenger Classic game against the Northwood Senior Rangers.

A line drive came screaming toward Williams, who flinched just as Zack Waken, 18, of Lake Forest, swept in to make the catch.

Williams, 30, needed a morning like this to remind him of baseball's simple, youthful joys. His newest teammates were ages 14-25, with special needs and mental and physical disabilities.

Some players relied on wheelchairs, walkers, coaches and buddies to get them around the bases. Some needed parents to help them clutch the bat to swing at a pitch.

“Just seeing these kids being so happy to be on the field, playing baseball and living their dream makes me happy,” said Williams, a father of four children.

“They struggle with something every day. For me to have gone through my struggles to get back to the game makes coming back to help out even more special.”

The recent days have been “nerve-wracking,” Williams said, with Angels starting pitchers and his clubhouse neighbors Ervin Santana being traded and Dan Haren getting his option declined and being cut loose by the team.

Williams, the Angels former No. 5 starter who struggled before finishing the season as a middle reliever, doesn't know what his future holds. He signed a one-year, $820,000 contract last season and is eligible for arbitration Nov. 30.

“Right now, I'm just waiting to see where I fit in,” he said. “I showed some versatility in being able to start or come in in relief. I just want to pitch … somewhere.”

He's trying to stay positive, a mettle that's being tested this offseason during which the Angels have whittled their once-vaunted rotation down to two established starters, All-Stars Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson.

But Williams remembers the “long, winding road” his 12-year career has taken from the day he was a Hawaiian high schooler with a mid-90s fastball, dubbed the “next Dwight Gooden” and drafted 39th overall in 1999 by the San Francisco Giants.

He said the quick fame and signing-bonus fortune once made him “selfish” in his youth, so much that his own mother and best friend, Deborah, screamed at him, “Get the hell out of my face!” when he, at age 19, came to her bedside as she battled breast cancer.

“I wasn't there for her, and what she said made me realize that I'll never treat anyone like that again,” he said. “From that day on, I treated everyone with respect.”

Another lesson in humility came in 2007, when he was released and “felt like nobody wanted me.” He had gone 23-29 with the Giants, Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals from 2003-07, shuttling between the majors and minors before he was 26 and out of big league chances.

“Where did my career go?” he said he thought. “I wanted to quit, to give up, but I had nothing, no college degree, no skills for a 9-to-5 that would pay for me enough to support my family, nothing except baseball.”

He had to play independent ball, joining the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League in 2008. He barely made enough money to put gas in his car. He slept at his brother-in-law's house in San Clemente.

The Giants scouts returned for a game but left by the second inning, having seen enough of a still-struggling Williams. In his next start, Williams begged Armada manager Steve Yeager to let him stay in the game and worked 12 innings, giving up just one run and no walks on 137 pitches.

Two days later, Williams was picked up by the Dodgers. He signed minor league deals with the Dodgers and then Oakland before heading to play in 2010 in Taiwan, where he learned that pitching wasn't all about throwing heat to blow by batters.

With his trusted fastball, a new cutter and the ability to mix speeds for a curve and changeup, Williams returned to America in 2011 to play for the independent Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers. He threw a complete-game, two-hitter with 11 strikeouts, prompting the Angels to sign him on June 15, 2011, and send him to Triple-A Salt Lake.

Williams returned to The Show on Aug. 17, 2011, wearing the pink Zett glove he picked up in Taiwan to honor his mother, who died of breast cancer in 2001 at the age of 46. He went 4-0 in 2011 and 6-8 in 2012.

He still wears a puka-shell necklace like the one his mother gave him on her death bed.

Beneath his game cap, he still writes the words his mother last told him, “Don't just do it for me. Do it for yourself.”

On Saturday, while watching the Challenger players round the bases, Williams thought about how far he has come from baseball to obscurity and back and about how lucky he is to be able to play another day.

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